All of the writers and editors at Android Police are huge fans of Android and Google; it's more or less a requirement for the job. But we're also keenly aware of the things that Google does poorly, and duty-bound to point them out in the hope that they will improve. One of the more obvious areas where Google doesn't excel is customer support, but one of the latest changes to the Support.Google.com site seems like a nice step forward.

If you're a regular Android Police reader, you probably don't need any "sales assistance" when picking out a new phone, tablet, or laptop - pretty much everything you could want to know is just a web search away. But some people appreciate the personal touch, which is why those guys in the blue shirts at Best Buy still have jobs. To help out these sorts of shoppers, Google is offering live video chat assistance for hardware shoppers on the Play Store.

Early this morning, we took a quick look at the onboarding video/process for Google's impending update to Gmail 5.0. The critical feature shown off in the video was the ability to handle all your email providers in one app, meaning users could access Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and others all from Google's singular Gmail app.

We've since learned that - besides handling the providers above - Gmail will support Exchange mail, and it appears Gmail will obviate the stock Email app entirely, prompting users to go directly to the Gmail app instead of dealing with a separate solution.

YouTube thrives off the videos produced by independent content creators all over the world, and while it compensates many of them through ads, that money is hardly enough to make a living off of in most cases. Earlier this summer Google said that producers would soon have the option to request donations right on their YouTube pages. The feature's live now, so here's a look at how it works.

When you're watching something produced by someone who's willing to accept donations, an icon will appear in the top left corner of the video.

One issue preventing a bunch of people from viewing Google Maps as the navigation godsend that many others see it as is its limited availability in certain parts of the globe. Well, Google is working to change that. The company has rolled out support for navigation in the countries of El Salvador, Libya, Nicaragua, Paraguay, and Tunisia.

Here are screenshots of the feature enabled in Paraguay, where an Android Police reader has noticed it for the first time.

Right now, in the slide-out "hamburger" menu of most Google apps, there's a Help button, with a tiny circled question mark icon. If a user needs help with the app (or anything else), this button will pull up a web page. Once on the web page, users can browse through categories for help articles and potential solutions or, if all else fails, request a support call from Google.

It looks like Google wants to make that experience a little more elegant, though.

Customized Moto X phones are already a good deal, considering that the standard models are the same price as their retail counterparts, or just a bit more if you want one of those swanky wood backs. But there may be a more practical reason for you to use the Moto Maker service: a bit of free insurance. A Reddit user recently broke the screen on his(?) Verizon Moto X, and after letting Motorola support know, he got a code for a free replacement phone on Moto Maker.

For the last several days, an unknown number of Android users have been getting inconsistent results when using the built-in Google Search app on their phones and tablets. And by "inconsistent," I mean that they aren't getting any at all, instead being greeted by the enigmatic message "can't load search results" whenever they try to use it. While none of the Android Police staff have experienced this, threads on Google Code, Google Groups, and Reddit continue to receive replies.

Adobe AIR for Android can now run natively on Intel x86-based mobile devices, enabling people who own such a device to better run games and web apps that require the AIR runtime. This support will allow AIR developers to target the x86 hardware directly, getting improved performance out of the apps they create. AIR may not be quite the household name that Adobe Flash was, but it's still prevalent enough where people without the software installed are at least missing out on something.